electrical breakdowns, managed to hook a big
fish. I’ve seen Connor hook big f lathead
before, even crying at times when he loses
them, so I hoped this one stayed on as we had
no Kleenex on board if it got away. This fish
took off across the f lat with a lot of headshakes
and under a light drag was on for almost five
minutes. Fortunately the lure was jammed into
the corner of its mouth and after a while we
had a very nice 82cm f lathead in the net,
which was Connor’s personal best
f lathead. This one ate the Nemesis
as well and it was great to see
another plus 80cm fish caught in
the depths of winter. Connor
handled that fish very well. We
caught 18 nice f lathead that session
with quite a few nice eating
specimens between 50 and 55cm.
The conditions were poor but it
was a reasonable result on a windy
cold storm day. I went into detail
about the particular lures just to illustrate that
there are many ways to chase these fish, and
the best results come from mixing up your
methods and trying different things.
I find it almost impossible to go f lathead
fishing unless I have at least five different rods
rigged and ready to go. This isn’t part of any
obsessive compulsive disorder, it's just the way I
am. All my outfits serve different purposes and
are designed to get the best from the multiple
fishingworld.com.au | September 2019 | 31different lure types we may use on a given day.
While I love chasing barramundi, big marlin and
all sorts of exotica, f lathead fishing is something
I spend more time doing when compared to
chasing other species. They also tend to be
around when the pelagic game fish have moved
on, and weather is rarely a problem. The
following is an overview of the outfits I use and
the methods I use with a particular rod. There is
no such thing as the perfect f lathead rod.TROLLING ROD
This is a Loomis CBR 843 with a Shimano Stella
2500FA. I’ve used this for trolling small lures
such as Lively Lures Micro Mullets for around
20 years. While it may seem over the top using a
Stella for f latties, this reel has never let me down
and the rod has a beautiful curve with a nice tip
action, soft enough for trolling but strong
enough for bigger fish. I have caught literally
thousands of f lathead on this outfit. I find if itisn’t broken, don’t fix it, and for this reason I
haven’t changed either rod or reel for my trolling.
Used with fine 6 pound braid and 12 pound
f luorocarbon leader, I find I can work a trolled
lure effectively, and at the same time be able to
shake of any weed with a few sweeps of the rod.
7 foot is about the right length for trolling in
most situations.
A trolling outfit used with smaller lures needs
to be light, fairly soft and responsive. While this
rod is no longer available, there are
plenty of similar models on the
market. Avoid using a rod with too
fast an action for trolling for f lathead
as you will miss a lot of bites and
pull hooks on the smaller lures.SMALL LURES ROD
I use a Loomis DSR 820 with a
Shimano Sustain 1000FG for smaller
lures, both casting and trolling. This
is matched with fine 3 pound braid
and generally 8lb leader. This rod is quite soft
and is ideal for working small lures such as
Tango Shads, small Zerek Prawns, small blades
and a new favourite, the Eco Gear ZX40, a type
of prawn imitation blade with small assist hooks.
When the fish are a bit quiet I often find
downsizing to be an effective method. In this
situation most of the lures used have tiny trebles
or small assist hooks and a very soft rod prevents
pulled hooks. This rod also has great feel and has“All my outfits serve different
purposes and are designed to get the
best from the multiple different lure
types we may use on a given day.”